One of my favorite parts of teaching preschool is making up stories for the kids. Occasionally my stories disappoint, and the kids get disinterested. But other times I can get them to stare wide-eyed at me in anticipation of what's going to come next in the story, and that is sooo fun! It's also fun to try to come up with morals to my stories. The kids usually ask for scary stories, and so I include things like dragons, witches, princesses, jaguars, dungeons, etc in them.
On Monday night this week I had one of those days when I had all the kids' full attention with a story I was making up. Because of this, I tried to drag the story on a little in order to keep the peace in the classroom. It was at least a ten minute story. I didn't think much of it until Wednesday night, when a five-year-old girl that had been in my class on Monday night asked me to tell her a story. I was tired and not exactly in the story-telling mood, and so I said, "I know, how about you tell me a story tonight!" She protested, but eventually gave in and started telling a story.
Well, to my complete and utter amazement, she proceeded to retell the exact story I made up on Monday night!! She remembered the sequence of events, the characters, the wording, and even the gestures I had used when I had told the story! It was jaw-dropping. I don't know if I could have recalled it as well as she did. Here are some words she had remembered me using: kingdom, Greetings!, Bengal tiger, sleeping potion, China (actually, I had used the word "Asia," but still!). I was amazed!
It was so cute to see her tell this story with such excitement and enthusiasm, and it was one of those times when you feel rewarded for what you do.
2 comments:
That's cool. Kids really are little sponges.
See. You should write a book!
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